Content streaming, such as the streaming of audio, video, and/or text media content is becoming increasingly popular. The term “streaming” is typically used to indicate that the data representing the media is provided over a network to a client computer and the client computer renders the streaming content as it is received from a network server, rather than waiting for an entire “file” to be delivered.
When streaming media content over a network, the data is typically sent in packets. However, there is typically no guarantee that data packets will arrive at their destination in the same order that they are received, or even that they will arrive at their destination at all. Additionally, there is typically no guarantee that the time it takes a data packet to travel from the source to the destination will be a specific amount, or even that it will be the same for different data packets. In order to account for these variances in data delivery to the client computer, the client computer maintains a buffer of data, typically on the order of three to five seconds worth of data. This buffer allows the client computer to smooth out the variances so that they are not noticeable to the user during playback of the content. However, one problem with this buffering is that it causes the user to have to wait for the buffer to be initially filled before playback begins, thereby delaying the starting of the playback. It would be beneficial to provide a way to reduce this user-unfriendly delay.
The adaptable accelerated content streaming described below solves these and other problems.